The Abandoned Fluorspar Mine Isolated from Civilisation | Abandoned Engineering
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- čas přidán 3. 07. 2024
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Groverake fluorspar mine, originally opening in 1878 by the Weardale Lead Company.
Situated in Weardale, County Durham. In the turn of the 20th Century several private companies worked the mine here including Blanchland Fluor Mines Ltd.
During the second world war the mine was assisted by ‘bevin boys’ a Labour shortage solution named after the wartime labour minister Ernest Bevin. Where some Armed Forces conscripts instead of being sent to war, were instead sent to work in the pits.
This was mainly for the much needed Coal, however other materials were in desperate shortage and fluorspar was one such material, Some 48,000 men were sent into this alien world, rather than to the front line including future stars Eric Morecambe and the disgraced Jimmy Saville.
British Steel took over ownership of many private fluorspar mines after it was formed on 28th July 1967.
Groverake was not, rather being bought by the lucrative ICI company which was later taken over by Swiss Aluminium (SAMUK).
Much development work to find new deposits was carried out by SAMUK but in 1982 all mining interests in fluorspar came into common ownership by Minworth Ltd. Mining continued towards the millennium but due to cheap imports of non-stick pans (produced with fluorspar as a main ingredient) Minworth Ltd went into administration in 1999 and mining ceased.
Now capped and flooded, the main pit cavens dug deep below the surface have returned to nature and are inaccessible, however lets now explore the shaft headgear and pit tunnels that are still accessible.
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That linkage attached to the winding rope and the skip/cage is a detaching hook which was designed to disengage and trap the skip/cage in the event of an overwind situation. Various detaching hooks were on the market including the Ormerod hook and the Humble hook the latter being manufactured by Head Wrightson Engineering at Thornaby, Stockton on Tees
Nice information, thank you.
Thanks for taking quite a risk going down that tunnel, considering that its collapsed inside. Really awesome to see the old lift shaft too. Hope you all managed to make it to the services without running out of fuel.
Hi Tech Tier, it was enjoyable this location. The quiet would have been chaos before it closed. Yes some of the beams were very rotten. I don’t think it’ll be navigable in a few years. Thanks for watching Tech I appreciate your support.
We got to the fuel stop with 19 miles left in the tank :)
Wow, rather you than me! Watching the video said you made it out and there was no catastrophic rockfall. But it all looked imminent to me! Here in SA, illegal trespassing miners scraping a living down closed Mines are called Zama Zamas. ZZs have a very short life expectancy! Pleased you didn't start shifting debris to go deeper. Fascinating exploring. Thanks for sharing.
Absolutely fascinating! Another bit of history that I did not know. Brilliant!
Hello there Burning Sands, thank you very much :)
Amazing exploring guys. Great to see so much still preserved.
Glad you enjoyed it :)
Excellent video. Love the ALW Research Team
Hello Barry. Thank you very much
Hi, Andy & team. What an amazing interesting video, the views from the top of the winding wheel were stunning! I find old abandoned mines fascinating, the tunnels were especially interesting with the track bed & collapses etc looked very scary! but its a bit sad also that we don't have any working coal mines left. ❤😊
Hello Carol, it’s a crazy shame that we have let this skilled industry fade away
@@ALWResearchTeam absolutely other countries are still mining coal, so should we with all the tonnes of coal still underground. Whole communities have been decimated , it will never be the same . We are surrounded by pit villages here in South Yorkshire. 😊❤
Brilliant, may thanks for this.
You're very welcome :)
Very interesting guys, Thankyou x
Thank you too Barb Henderson!
They haven't caped that shat very well bellow the head frame.
This was captivating, terrifying and really interesting. I'm amazed you were able to get into the mine as far as you did. Good luck in all your future endeavors, may you be safe and healthy. >^*^
Hi Katzy, thanks very much
Really enjoyed that and yes it’s good as a change. 😁👍👊😎
Hello Ant, thank you very much. We really enjoyed filming this one.
The electrical switches in the tunnel are/were emergency stop grab wire safety rope switches designed to be mounted along the length of conveyors (or similar moving machinery) which couldn’t be protected via guards. This enabled the machine to be stopped anywhere along its length in an emergency.
Really enjoyable video, keep ’em coming!
Hello Dave H, Thank you for the information, i thought it was something along the lines of a stop/start cable.
Fab video. Made me feel very claustrophobic in the drift.
Thank You :)
Great video mate
Thank You Sir
Waw man..interesting tunnel!thanks for showing me! Wicked man 👍
Glad you enjoyed it Lewis :)
Dave is a brave man, i hate heights so no way would i go up there
I’m not keen either
Awesome video mate really enjoyed it looks really interesting too hope you're well mate 👍😀stay safe 👍😀
Hi Sammy. Thank you.
Cool explore. This looks very remote and forgotten about.
Hello there, it was rather remote :) we had plenty of food and water but not much fuel when we eventually got there. Thanks for watching and commenting :)
Well done thanks for sharing big like from me 👍
Hello Rodpiker Drones, thank you very much
More please.
Like watching Fred Dibnah climbing up that winding tower.........
You’re very welcome
Nice!
👍👍👍👊😎
Thank you. It sure was an interesting one
You’re giving me the willies looking down the shaft hole up the tower.
It sure was high up :)
Really cool place and thanks for sharing. A real gem. Out of interest, have you considered getting a suitable gas monitor for when you go under ground and confined spaces?
Hello there, we have a couple of four gas monitors. Thanks for watching and commenting
Last time I went there, there was no fence around the tower etc. Did you climb the fence or was the gate open. The other workings were removed by scrap dealers years ago. Great vid of an interesting piece of mineral history.
Hello there, the gate was open, shame the scrap dealers chopped the rest of this historic site up. Thanks for watching and commenting
Fantastic video. Really interesting. Thank you Research Team for another great adventure 💜
Hello WinnieWitch, thank You very much :)
Looks a little Spooky!
It wasn't, just a bit wet :)
Cheeky explore that, was that cute little house in the background derelict, and was it for the mining staff or something
Hello MissB, there were other more modern buildings but they were removed shortly after closure in 1999. The little house looks to have been staff welfare at some stage. Thanks for watching and commenting:)
@@ALWResearchTeam oh how fascinating, so did the workers not live on site then, considering theres only a couple of buildings around, and the looks of it in the middle of nowhere. Gorgeous scenes from where dave was standing.
You are correct about the stable, there were ponies there
Excellent information, thank you :)
Lol people have go through. Just dont think about it to much as ur going through. Also u really need a helmet x
Thank you. I prefer boobies 👻🐝 :-)
We have a lot of shut down spar minds in Ky.. what is spar used for
Hi 👋 it was used to extract flourine the ingredient of non stick coatings in pans.